Who Should Be The Next Faction?

Captain's Blog Stardate 92940.06

Let's talk about the factions. We currently have two and a half and the idea of more is definitely intriguing. Right now it seems like the two possibilities for another faction are Cardassian/Dominion or Liberated Borg. The question is, do we want another faction and how should it be set up?

First let's examine a Cardassian faction. Right now the Cardassians are a broken and divided people since the Dominion war ended. They are very similar to the Romulans in this respect. The current story shows them getting help from the Federation so it wouldn't make much sense for players to have to choose between a Federation/Klingon ally.

A Dominion faction would be pretty cool because it opens up the Gamma Quadrant, which makes a lot of sense at this point. They would have to be an entirely stand-alone faction because, again, it doesn't make sense for them to have to choose an ally. They are a strong faction and don't need help from anyone.

Finally we have the Liberated Borg which is a great idea. This can open up new sectors in the Delta Quadrant, give us tons of character options within one faction, and again be stand-alone. It makes the most sense for a Liberated Borg faction to choose an ally, but the story has us all working together, so why should a new faction have to choose?

Overall I think they key to a new faction is to drop the "faction walls" in fleets. Let's be honest, this is the biggest reason Cryptic made Romulans choose an ally. By joining another faction you can join their fleet. If fleets can accept any member despite of faction then this whole "choose an ally" concept can go away.

In the comments let me know which faction you would like to see added to the game? It could be one of these or something else entirely. Is there anything special that you would like to see from this faction?

Written by Attilio on May 03, 2015 at 09:40 pm

Comments

TacPaddy(Member) said...May 04, 2015 at 03:36 am

A Dominion faction would be awesome. It would indeed open up the Gamma Quadrant. But I'm not so sure about the stand-alone factor. Recently, I saw a Loading screen with the word "Unite" and around it, were the insignis from several factions, including the Dominion.

Also, I think it would invite quite an outrage from the player base. Imagine Ships like the JHAS, JHSS, JHEC, JHDC being easily available for ZEN, while the other factions spent tons of money to get those Ships from Lock Boxes, the Lobi Store and/or different DOFF / R&D Packs.

In any case, I would like to see a "Villain" faction. A faction, where you can let out your dark side.

I like the Card/Dominion Faction will be great because there is not a storyline with the Gamma Quad. I would like to know what happen to the Dominion after the episodes of Deep Space Nine ended including how Bajor became part of the Federation.
Also, I hope you start doing more storyline with the Xindi and perhaps revamp some of the story of the Klingon conflict with the Federation because the episodes deal more with the Devedians and the Undine than with Klingons itself. Perhaps have the Devedians and the Undine are trying to start a war between the two powers which finally ends into a peace treaty alliance.

I guess the next faction will most likely be dependent on where they are expanding the game to, more Delta or new Gamma.

Currently, the liberated borg would fit best into the "Choose your side," which encompasses more than fleets. The foundry, the storylines, all make use of the "Faction Choice" to determine participation.

They could play it off as a member of the cooperative that wants to regain a portion of their former life...

Dominion would cause outrage, crdssian would make sense as a federation ally. The valor you can but from the exchange would probably be renamed "23 century valor class" a hediki T1, a heavly armored hediki t2, heavy hediki-light galor t3, t4 galor or a hediki variant, t5 (lv40) keldon(assault cruiser setup) galor retrofit, and some light galor hediki class.

Cryptic/PWE has certainly laid the ground for a Liberated Borg faction, but I think this would be a weak option for a faction expansion. In my opinion, The Dominion has been a glaring omission from STO. An empire that once covered the majority of known Gamma Quadrant space and which rivaled any of the Alpha/Beta Quadrant empires, yet, is allowed only small episodic content in STO. The Cardassians should be made a playable race, but I'm not sure there's enough canon material for an entire faction. With the Cardies already divided into two factions in STO's story, it might be easier to incorporate them into the existing arc...using the same 'coming of age' pvp faction choice the Romulans were given. I have friends that left STO over the lack of a Cardassian faction, so there's a market for one. Still, I'ld personally choose The Dominion, or Gamma Quadrant expansion for STO's future project.

I don't think they should develop another faction. I think their next development project should involve making stories based onboard our ships. I think having more personal interactions with Bridge Officers would make the game feel much more like Star Trek. Add more onboard intrigue and mystery. Some of the best episodes never left the ship and started with a quiet drink in the lounge, or interesting banter on the bridge.

There is already a Liberated Borg character that you cam get as a LifeTime sub.But that would still be awsome to not be a sub and still have a Borg character. I thnk if they do come up with a whole faction for the Borg it will be 100 ZEN to use the faction. I would also love to see them have Borg ships availble form C-Store and a Fleet Version. Flying around a Borg Cube or even a Borg Command Ship would be Epic. I also would think they would give you a complete Borg storyline. It would be an awsome Season 11 for Star Trek Online.

Dominion would be a very logical option, after having Rommies. The whole enemy faction being blasted to bits and rebuilding their territory is a very similar idea, as would be the equivalent of the Tal Shiar vs. the Republic. Probably more of the internal politics of the Founders and such. Gotta say I found the whole DS9 arc ingame kind of trippy, but there's so much possible improvement to be had.

On the other hand, Lib'd Borg would be another good choice... for pretty much the exact opposite reasons. They'd be starting from scratch, and not actually having much forced contact with the Collective. The real conflict would be with the species who got burned by the Borg and are unconvinced of the main character's de-indoctrination.

Whatever we get, more voiceovers would be amazing. Tovan, Elisa, and K'gan were really cool characters anyway, and having them with even partial voiceovers was awesome. The next step would be getting male and female VAs for our actual characters. Unlikely, but it'd be fun to have even just one for each sex on every faction. More examples of good voice acting in STO are Ambassador Staass and Hakeev, as well as Worf and D'Tan, later on.

I think Cardassians or Borg would be ok, but now that we have TOS Starfleet, how about TOS Klingons? And there's always the Xindi, which have their own ships and five different species anyway. Then again, they could always wait for Discovery to come out and use whatever new aliens appear there (maybe whatever Lt. Saru will be, maybe whatever those Klingon-ish aliens are)